Bomb the port you want unharmed?

[APrusty]

Hey good folks! Any one who can clarify this for me?

"It is very important to damage ports that are near
to invasion hexes through strategic bombing and
ground attack missions in the turns prior to an
invasion. Selecting Amphibious Support during
Automatic Air Directive creation the turn the
invasion is ordered will target the ports, but this
is too late in the process and could likely result in
high losses to the invading forces. Since strategic
bombing missions tend to fly only a few days a
week, while ground attack missions tend to be
flown every day (based on air doctrines), if you
want to damage the ports quickly, use ground
attack missions" from pg.125 in the Living Manual

My guess is that a high level port, when undamaged, inflicts casualties on an invasion force. This to portray naval guns and fortifications in the game.

Any one who got the answer here?
THANK'S[:)]

[loki100]

an undamaged port generates naval interdiction, sometimes quite a few hexes of levels 3+. Now your invasion force has to sail through that (=losses), your supply needs to sail through that (=losses), your naval taskforces have to operate in that (=losses).

Even worse, you need 2> the enemy interdiction to get any supply at all, so if the LW is committed (as it should), its effect is added to that port generated interdiction. if your beachhead becomes isolated ... well it dies.

So lets say your first invasion of the Italian mainland is going in near Taranto - not a bad spot, its open terrain, it will dislocate any German defense of the forces moving up from Sicily and its close enough to the Allied bases to allow decent air cover. If Taranto is undamaged and the Germans chuck the LW in, you could end up either horribly short of supply or, at the worst, isolated.

[APrusty]

You might have saved a part of my first landing then.
Planned to take Calabria without bombing the port on T-2.

[cfulbright]

Also bomb any ports between your own embarkation ports and the target beaches. If you're invading at Normandy, it's good to bomb Cherbourg, Le Havre, Dieppe, Etaples, Calais, Boulogne, Dunkirk, Ostend, and Bruges. You can put GA/Port AD's aimed at:

1. 83,190 size 3, 2 targets
2. 92,182, size 4, 6 targets
3. 73,189, size 0, 1 target

and get them all.

Cary